Barefoot: Escape on the Underground Railroad

Title: Barefoot: Escape on the Underground Railroad

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Author: Pamela Duncan Edwards

Illustrator/Photographer: Henry Cole

Publisher and Year: HarperCollins Publishers in 1997

Number of pages: 28 pgs

Tags: Olivia Simkins, Realistic Fiction, 2-3, 4-5, Culture, Picture Book

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Analysis:

This book is about the path a runaway slave takes. It is from the perspective of the person’s foot and all the creatures it encounters along the way. The animals in the story help lead the foot to a safe house where the boy will stay.

This text functions as a window for its audience. The text is intended to let the reader in on what the barefoot has to go through in order to be safe. It helps the audience get a look into what it was like during an escape from a slave owner. With this book being aimed more towards younger readers, the audience has never experienced what it was like to escape and travel on the Underground Railroad. The only thing that I found interesting was that the writer and the illustrator are both Caucasian. I think they did a good job at creating the story however I feel that it may be more accurate if the writer was someone who experienced it or knew someone experienced it. However, the illustrator did an excellent job of making all the picture dark, mysterious, and having no frame giving the audience the feeling as if they were there with the main character. When looking more closely at the images, you can see whenever they show the slave owners walking through the woods looking for the boy, you can notice a horizon. The significance of this is to signify the on coming danger.

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